Bringing product thinking to a Swiss newsroom with a new role
Classic product management starts with empathy for end users. In media, that logic only works if you add one crucial step.
Before audiences ever experience a product, journalists create the experience. They work under tight deadlines, editorial constraints, and cultural norms that rarely show up in road maps or Jira tickets. If product teams don’t deeply understand that reality, they will build tools and features that look great in demos — and quietly fail in production.
The editorial product manager exists to close that gap. Their job is not to “represent product” in editorial meetings or “defend editorial” in product discussions. Their job is to translate newsroom needs into product decisions — and product constraints back into editorial reality.
From alignment to ownership: realizing the editorial product manager role
At NZZ, the editorial product manager role didn’t start as an organizational blueprint. It emerged from a recurring pattern: Product initiatives that were well-designed and thoughtfully planned often lost momentum once they reached everyday newsroom practice. Features shipped, but adoption varied, feedback loops were slow, and it wasn’t always clear who owned them.
The case for change wasn’t framed as a cultural transformation, but as a delivery problem. While the initial thinking was informed by work I did during the Sulzberger Executive Leadership Program at Columbia Journalism School, the role only took shape through iterative testing in the newsroom.
Rather than adding new coordination or governance layers, we chose a simple shift: Move product ownership closer to where journalistic decisions are made. The editorial product manager role was positioned as a way to reduce friction, speed up implementation, and increase impact — without challenging editorial independence or product authority.
Leadership buy-in came from three concrete arguments.
Faster execution: Fewer handovers between editorial and product reduced delays and rework.
Increased adoption: Solutions shaped from inside the newsroom were more likely to be used.
Clear accountability: A single role owning outcomes reduced ambiguity between editorial input and product responsibility.
With that framing, we introduced three editorial product manager roles, each with a clearly defined user and outcome.
Editorial Product Manager for Content Experience
This role defines the building blocks of articles and treats the home page as a product. The primary outcome is always user-centric, focusing on how readers discover, consume, and navigate journalism across owned platforms.Editorial Product Manager for Editorial Workflows
This role defines workflows from planning through publication. The primary user is the journalist, not the reader. Success is measured by how well tools and processes support editorial work under real-world constraints.Editorial Product Manager for Newsletters
This role owns the newsletter portfolio end-to-end: developing new newsletter concepts, evolving existing formats, building the underlying content-management platform, and running newsletter operations through the CRM and distribution tools.
Each editorial product manager works within a dedicated cross-functional team, supported by a UX designer, developers, and a data analyst who enables data-informed decision-making. This structure ensures that editorial insight, product execution, design quality, and data literacy are tightly coupled — and that ownership remains clear from idea through delivery.
Starting dual, not staying dual: a pragmatic transition model
When recruiting from within the newsroom, editorial product managers start in a shared role, splitting their time between editorial work and product responsibility. This lowers the barrier to entry, builds trust quickly, and helps the organization absorb change without cultural shock.
One important evolution in our thinking: The dual editorial-product role is not the end state. Over time, however, these roles can (and often should) transition into full-time product positions. That progression enables a mutually beneficial transition.
For organizations trying to build product capability without alienating editorial teams, this transition model has proven far more effective than external hiring alone. Selection is based not on seniority or output volume, but on mindset. We look for editors who are curious about audiences; ask questions about impact beyond publication; and show interest in processes, data, and trade-offs. These signals matter more than formal product experience.
Once these team members are selected, onboarding focuses on doing, not training. New editorial product managers are embedded in an existing product team; paired closely with designers and developers; and supported through regular coaching on core product skills such as problem framing, prioritization, and outcome definition. We intentionally avoid long theoretical training programs. Product thinking is learned in context, alongside real delivery.
The transition to a full-time product role happens gradually and is driven by practice rather than a fixed timeline. We look for three signals.
Diminishing returns from editorial work: The person’s remaining editorial tasks no longer meaningfully contribute to their growth as a product manager.
Organizational readiness: Stepping away from the editorial team would not weaken their effectiveness or credibility as a product manager.
Personal clarity: The individual expresses a clear need to focus fully on the product side of the role.
When these are in place, moving into a full-time editorial product manager role becomes a natural next step rather than a formal promotion.
This progression benefits both editorial and product operations. Journalists can move into product work at a sustainable pace, while the organization retains flexibility to shape the role over time. Most important, product thinking takes root organically inside the newsroom, as editorial product managers move from shared responsibility toward full product ownership. In our experience, that dynamic has proven far more effective than relying on external hiring alone.
One structural choice that changed everything: where product sits
Perhaps the most underestimated decision we made had nothing to do with org charts, and everything to do with physical space. The designers and developers working with editorial product managers sit on the newsroom floor, not on the technology floor.
This has had three powerful effects.
Visibility: Product teams are seen as part of editorial operations, not as a distant IT function.
Trust: Editors don’t see “tech people” dropping in with abstract solutions. They see colleagues who understand their work under constant deadlines, their tools, and the way they operate.
Speed: Many issues that would otherwise become tickets or Slack threads get solved informally, sometimes within minutes, because the right people sit nearby.
This proximity fundamentally changes how product work is perceived: not as transformation imposed from outside, but as enablement from within.
How success is measured
Three key metrics are central to measuring the success of an editorial product manager’s work.
Engagement: This includes article completion rates and home-page revisit rates.
Business impact: Engagement is a proxy for conversion and retention.
Editorial value: This is assessed through feedback and qualitative impact on storytelling.
This balanced scorecard matters for career development. It positions editorial product managers as first-class product practitioners, not translators stuck between worlds.
One initiative illustrates the impact of this mindset shift particularly well. User research showed that readers value opinion journalism, but many had trouble distinguishing opinion pieces from reported articles — especially younger audiences. The resulting product idea: Make opinion content visually distinct, including clearer author signaling.
The design idea was straightforward, but cultural and operational dimensions came into play. Not every journalist is comfortable with increased personal visibility, for instance. But the editorial product manager understood this sensitivity and highlighted ways that the change strengthened authorial voice. Adding author photos to articles also required workflow changes, metadata and CMS updates, and coordination with photo editors — all of which the editorial product manager was well-placed to handle with precise requirements and contextual fluency.
Takeaways for product practitioners
If you work in or around news product, this case study points to a few practical lessons.
Embed before you optimize. Physical and cultural proximity matter more than process-heavy alignment. Sitting in the newsroom, sharing context, and being part of daily editorial reality creates trust that no road map or OKR framework can replace.
Start dual and evolve toward full-time product ownership. Transitional roles lower resistance to change and make it sustainable. Allowing people to grow into product responsibility over time creates stronger product managers and gives organizations the flexibility to adapt without culture shock.
Credibility enables execution. In newsroom environments, the success of product ideas depends not only on their quality, but also on how well they are grounded in editorial reality. When ideas are brought forward by people who understand newsroom practices, responsibilities, and decision-making, they are more likely to be implemented well.
Journalism knowledge is a foundation for product management. Journalists’ experience, working rhythms, and editorial judgment translate naturally into product work when they’re given the right structure and support.
The editorial product manager role is not a solution for everything. But in our experience, it is one of the most effective ways to make product thinking stick in a newsroom, without breaking the very culture it is meant to support.